MARC ALAN FISHMAN: It’s Not Easy Being Green… Wait … Yes It Is!

Marc Alan Fishman

Marc Alan Fishman is a graphic designer, digital artist, writer, and most importantly a native born Chicagoan. When he's not making websites, drawing and writing for his indie company Unshaven Comics, or rooting for the Bears... he's a dedicated husband and father. When you're not enjoying his column here on ComicMix, feel free to catch his comic book reviews weekly at MichaelDavisWorld, and check out his books and cartoons at Unshaven Comics.

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11 Responses

  1. I have never liked Hal Jordan as a Green Lantern. Nobody and I mean NOBODY could make me give a damn about the character, not Denny O’Neil (sorry Denny), not Geoff Johns, nobody as ever written a Hal Jordan as a Green Lantern story where I gave a damn about him.

    The only time that I actually liked Jordan as a character was when he was the Spectre. J.M. DeMantis made like Jordan. Why because he made Jordan human.

    Kyle Rayner is IMHO by far the best Green Lantern because I can relate to him on a very personal level, until Johns turned a great 3-Dimensional complex character into little more than a drooling Hal Jordan fanboy in Green Lantern: Rebirth #5 the DCU that I knew and loved for 10 years died in that issue.

    I hope that the “new” DCU is a complete and total failure.

  2. Chris, I can’t agree more on Kyle. I grew up reading him, so I’m a bit biased for my love of the character… But ever since rebirth, he’s been pretty useless. They pair him up with a chick for a while, they tried letting him be Ion… they gave him a new chick… And now he’s going to lead the rainbow brigade in September. I hope it’s written well… and that he DOESN’T end up banging yet ANOTHER chick.

  3. Jonathan (the other one) says:

    If he’s leading the Rainbow Brigade, maybe it’s not a chick you should worry about Kyle banging… ;)

    More seriously, I have been given to understand that DC’s reboot is going to exclude two characters – an enormous error, in my opinion, as this then leaves two contradictory sets of continuity out there (which seems to have been what undid all the previous Infinite Crisis Points On Multiple Titles). Even worse, though, is that I am told one of those characters is the Green Lantern.

    Honestly, guys, can’t you see that this is the *perfect* time to fix the character? You get to throw out all the crap that’s been attached to the ring-slinger over the past forty-some years, and this time decide *before* you start how the history of the Corps was supposed to have been. (When Jordan signs up, this group is supposed to have been operating for billions of years – yet no one ever thought through what that might mean, which meant that each succeeding writer came up with their own versions, and didn’t often take the time to iron out the discrepancies.) You could create a Green Lantern who is actually a HERO, not a collection of neuroses; you could explain why an interstellar cop would find it necessary to hide his identity from others; you could, in short, *repair* this mess. Instead, you’re going to fix everybody *except* the Bat and Jordan. (Which seems to me bound to lead to some awkward moments later. “Hey, Clark, how’s the wife?” “What? What wife? And how did you know my name?”)

  4. Cap'n Sludge says:

    Personally, I always found Rayner a little TOO whitebread for my test. Always thought it was a missed opportunity on the part of DC. They had a chance to do something really different–an alien, an existing superhero, maybe even (gasp!) a woman or someone from outside the United States–and they picked…another white guy, whose distinguishing attribute was his complete lack of any distinguishing attributes.

    By the way, it was Owsley (or Priest or whatever) who originated Hal’s daddy issues (vis a vis the exploding plane) in the early 90’s mini “Emerald Dawn”. I’ve not read “Rebirth”, but it sounds like he was just sticking to established continuity.

    • Kyle was brought is as yet-another-child of the 90’s. He white because white characters were what sold. They gave him the hip hair, the hip new costume, and really just let the 90’s OOZE out of him. While it’d be ballsy to make an alien, a woman, or a sentient bucket the earth GL… it wouldn’t sell books.

  5. Kyle G. says:

    I’ve never been satisfied with the creation of paralax as an entity. It always seemed like a copout. It’s been well handled since its intro, and I do think its possible for John to write a developing Hal Jordan, like Secret Files, but it doesn’t always come through. Maybe it’s just harder to develop Hal over every other lantern?

  6. Mindy Newell says:

    Hey, Mark, was it Camp Monroe?

  7. Mindy Newell says:

    And btw. the only Green Lantern is Hal Jordan. Imho, of course! :-)

  8. Lou Hoffman says:

    Holy hell, it’s like you read my mind with this post. Get out of my head!!

    (Seriously, this was awesome. And Kyle was what got me into comics too.)